Feasts and Famines

How a look Eastward can make Americans more thankful — and vigilant

Here we are at another Thanksgiving, that most American of feast days. For so many of us, it has come to mean food, family and football.

Oh, and phenomenal savings — the next day, anyway.

We are reminded to thank God for our many blessings. And then we indulge.

I’ve never really thought about it much, but Archbishop Timothy Dolan made a lot of sense the other day when he pointed to the basic thing for which we must be grateful: the religious liberty we enjoy in this country, settled in large part by those whose religious freedom had been curtailed in the Old World.

In speaking of that “first freedom,” the archbishop of New York found himself in an interesting setting. He had just finished leading an important meeting of the 300 or so bishops of the United States in which a major topic of discussion was the erosion of religious liberty in our republic. It was Archbishop Dolan, as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who established an ad hoc committee on religious freedom, in response to growing threats to religious liberty. There’s the proposed mandate, for example, from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department that all employer healthcare plans cover contraception and sterilization — with a very narrow religious exemption. And there have been several Catholic Charities agencies that have gotten out of adoption and foster care because same-sex “marriage” laws require them to place children with homosexual households.

Religious freedom is a concern that, I dare say, is not yet on the radar screens of most Americans. They may have heard of Christians in other countries who cannot practice as they wishe, but not here, not in the good-old U.S.A.

If Archbishop Dolan has his way, however, it will be an issue in the 2012 elections.

The audience he addressed Sunday at Fordham University could well relate to his concerns. Fordham’s University Church was packed to the rafters with hundreds of Ukrainians and Ukrainian-Americans, whose Church and homeland had suffered bitterly for decades in the century lately ended.

They were there to honor the longtime major archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, who retired this year at the age of 77. Fordham erected the cardinal’s coat of arms in the sanctuary of the church, boasting that this alumnus (he earned a graduate degree there in 1966) was one of eight cardinals associated with the Jesuit university. Cardinal Avery Dulles is another.

More remarkable than his name, perhaps, is his age. He was 40 when he was elected in March to lead the world’s largest Eastern-rite Church in communion with Rome, with its 5.5 million members in Ukraine and the “Diaspora” around the world.

In his introductory remarks, Archbishop Dolan said that on Thanksgiving, “we thank God for the freedom and liberty we enjoy. We’ll have another reason for gratitude this week: that we’ve been privileged to be part of an occasion in which we honor you for the bravery, fortitude, integrity, fidelity and tenacity of you and Cardinal Husar and your beloved Ukrainian Catholics, who exhibited those virtues in a land that did not have religious liberty and freedom.

“Please accept our love and gratitude for you witness,” he said. “We need it more than ever.”

Archbishop Sviatoslav said he accepted the honor for the “martyr Church” he has been called to carry on his shoulders. Days earlier, as a guest at the U.S. bishops conference meeting in Baltimore, he expanded a bit more on that martyr Church, its resurrection since the fall of communism and its new challenges.

“I would like to express our solidarity with the USCCB as it prepares to defend religious freedom and liberty more vocally in the public square, not only in the United States but worldwide,” he said. “The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has a special understanding of religious liberty and what its absence entails. It’s evidenced by the martyrdom experienced by our Church during the totalitarian communist regime in eastern Europe…. Basic Church structures [were] totally destroyed by the communist regime.”

The Church in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was forcibly subsumed into the Russian Orthodox Church, and ecclesiastical properties were confiscated. The faithful continued to practice their religion underground.

Now, however, though the Church enjoys freedom, “society is facing strong secularizing influences,” which brings its own problems.

The Nov. 20 tribute to these two Ukrainian Catholic leaders, planned over a year ago, took place in a month in which one of Pope Benedict XVI’s prayer intentions was for the Eastern Churches, “that their venerable tradition may be known and appreciated as a spiritual treasure for the entire Church.” Coincidentally, I also had the opportunity to attend two other Ukrainian-related events in New York in November: a one-man play by Father Edward Evanko on the 1932-32 famine caused by the disastrous policies of Stalin, which left an estimated 7-10 million dead, and the premiere of a setting of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, by Roman Hurko — a veritable feast for the ears and spirit.

Here’s one Roman Catholic who, this Thanksgiving, is grateful for the faith and fidelity, fortitude, witness and wisdom of our Eastern Christian brothers and sisters.

Comments

YES I confused the older and this very amazing surprise new one. I had read of his surprise appointment and am so happy. I have had a great interest in the divided Church, visited Bulgaria to see friends but went to their famed Rila monastery and Sophia Cathedral in the capital. Was injured in 2010 discovered mor breaks not detected in x-ray, so cannot visit the Ukraine and St Petersburg and Moscow so must rely on a miracle or see films!

Posted by John Burger on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011 1:29 PM (EST):

Julian,
I meant no offense, and I thank you for pointing out your concerns, but as I understand it, it is up to Rome to grant the title of Patriarch. Even Major Archbishop Sviatoslav said, according to a March 31, 2011, Catholic News Service article, “We are conscious that the decision about the patriarchate belongs to the Holy Father and we would never press him. We respect his freedom.” As for using the term “archbishop,” we journalists have a habit of shortening titles and such on second reference, and that is why, after referring to him as Major Archbishop on the first reference, I used simply Archbishop Sviatoslav subsequently. Perhaps I need to use Major Archbishop each time. Thank you for correcting me.
HermtTalker, thank you for your note. The cardinal you reference, who is now Major Archbishop-emeritus, is, of course, Lubomyr Husar, not Sviatoslav Shevchuk, I would not be surprised, though, if this young prelate receives a red hat before his 45th birthday.

Posted by HermtTalker on Saturday, Nov 26, 2011 11:32 AM (EST):

One presumes Mr Burger, who highlighted this honour on here, meant no insult by referring to the priest as MAJOR ARCHBISHOP and noted his title of CARDINAL also. BTW HH BXVI dropped the title Patriarch of the West when he assumed the Bishopric of Rome. his real most accurate title.

Posted by Julian Hayda on Friday, Nov 25, 2011 2:20 AM (EST):

Firstly, his rightful title is ‘Patriarch’ and the entire Ukrainian Church considers him such. The Ukrainian Church maintains a patriarchal structure, making it an independent Church in communion with Rome (for reference, please read the Union of Brest, a document signed by the Western Patriarch). Secondly, if you refuse to call him by his rightful title, at least make him “Major” Archbishop instead of demoting him to just an Archbishop, because he is not just and Archbishop/head of an archdiocese, he is the head of an entire Church. After all, you wouldn’t like it if I called the head of your Church Archbishop Benedict XVI. I am sorry, but I am rather offended by this.

Posted by HermitTalker on Thursday, Nov 24, 2011 9:57 AM (EST):

Sad that the original need and intent of the Freedom of Religion clause was to prevent the State from establising a denomination, as Anglicanism in Jefferson’s Virginia Today the Poliitically Correct-ors are doing their best from Mr OBAMA on down and up the line to squelch any influence e of the Church on Main Street to have any say anything on the street!

Posted by Frankie on Thursday, Nov 24, 2011 9:45 AM (EST):

I am grateful for every day the Lord gives me to PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME.

Freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion.

“O Lord, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love you. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love you.”
~Angel of Peace to the 3 children at Fatima~

Posted by HermitTalker on Thursday, Nov 24, 2011 9:06 AM (EST):

I recall when I first came to the USA the Baptists were ranting against the State being lobbied on paying for buses for Catholic and other Christian school students. Then one Baptist pastor wrote a letter to the local newspaper when our pastor pointed out that their having reliigous baccalaureate services in public schools was also a violation of how they interpreted Church-State separation. I took a very keen interest in the First Aamendment at that point and later took a minor in an MA on it. I predicted then, 1965, that very soon there would be no prayers in any school. 46 years later how sadly true that is and worse now with the trashing of Natural Law and the Constitution with imposing laws that violate civilised society’s “rules of engagement.”

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About John Burger

John Burger came to the Register in 2001 as a staff writer after working as a reporter for Catholic New York, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of New York. He has a bachelor's degree in English from Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., and a master's degree in English from Iowa State University and has taught in China and France.